An Unfinished House

Club Deportivo Los Laureles had their first start yesterday, we came up with 2-1 loss but they played great and we came away with our heads held high. We'll keep you posted with how things progress. Standing L-R: Eli, Tati, Moye, Lauro, Oder, Chamu Kneeling L-R: Pato, Eduar, Kevin, Dino, Duke

Elwin found a single roller blade in the community yesterday and thought to test it out...it didn't go so well. a running start you can't see it but he's on one foot crash landing kind of repenting of the whole venture

mixing paint for our building project in the community. i like the colors.

Sunday after church we loaded up about 35 of our finest soccer players into a cattle truck loaned to me by a church member and we headed off to the beach...not to swim mind you but to take advantage of the regulation-size field that sits just on the other side of the dunes. The field that we have available to us in Los Laureles is pitifully small and just doesn't get the job done especially when all 37 of our kids show up. Thus when the opportunity becomes available to us, or when my local rancher friend isn't hauling cattle off to slaughter we take the kids to local municipal fields to give them a feel for what it's like to play on a large field. our putting-green that we have to play on in the community getting warmed up at the beach stretching, you have no idea how beautiful it is to see these kids this organized pimpona, not his real name or a member of the team, looks on patiently receiving last-minute instructions konrad entertainign himself on the truck the bea...

...and i've got a case of the mondays

The rains, which we thought had passed on for the season, came back with a vengeance last week and put on hold a bigger project that we've planning recently. The founders and continuing caretakers of the building that we now use on an almost daily basis here in the community had given us money to get it painted. We had thought to begin last week but when the rains moved in we had to postpone for a bit. Saturday though Marvin and his trusty band helpers began painting in earnest and should be done both inside and out within a few days. nonstop rain water water everywhere...and you couldn't pay me to drink it we hit upon "melon" for the color outside marvin...he also did our steps for the inside we went with "mint green"

babysitting

A pathetic little Charlie Brown Christmas Tree came off of one of the garbage trucks here the other day and some of the little kids immediately snatched it up and began to decorate it. They wrapped it in some salvaged beads and topped it with a styracosaurus to sit in for the Angel. I told Konrad that he should lead us in a round of Carols and a retelling of the birth of Christ but he declined. the tree the styracosaurus brings us good tidings merry christmas again

Our Wednesday activity worked so well with the older kids that we decided to duplicate it with the Thursday crowd and have them color with chalk on the floor of our building. The kids became transfixed and really enjoyed it. belinda trying to coral the girls into their coloring circle even my helper roberto joined in the boys were surprsingly calmer and more focused than the girls konrad guarding the door

So I had to stay late today in Laureles. It seems our little soccer team has formed rival factions and the smaller, quieter, more easily offended bunch who all live next to each other have simply stopped coming to practice on a regular basis. The coach, bless his heart, despite his talents has done nothing to discourage this rivalry and so it fell upon me today to round up the vagrants and try and patch things up. It went easier than I expected but I'm not holding my breath that this arrangement will keep up. This is a group of jealous and hotheaded kids and if tensions didn't flare today they will almost assuredly do so tommorrow. Anyway, in that this is the most organized I've ever seen these kids I took the opportunity to take some photos.

Today we taught the story of Noah and his Ark. We acted it out with a couple of volunteers and a swath of cardboard that served as our Ark. Afterwards we handed out colored chalk and instructed our buddng artists to recreate the story of Noah and his menagerie. It started out well enough...as it always does, but it quickly devolved into the writing of bad words and racey pictures. These kids are nothing if they're not predictable. writing calmly on the steps and on the neighbor's wall konrad with his erstwhile friend chita abel admiring his work the finished products

I've always wanted to see how the garbage dump works up top but have always been hesitant to ask the favor of the garbage workers. This past week we got up the nerve and went straight to the owners of the dump to ask if thy might show us the inner-workings. They readily agreed and gave us the grand, 15 minute tour.